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Jimmy Fallon wasp mummifies and eats caterpillars

By Sally Adee

(Image&colon; Eduardo Shimbori)

This is Aleiodes falloni – a wasp named after comedian Jimmy Fallon, new host of The Tonight Show, the top US late-night talk show. But this wasp hasn’t got much in common with her namesake&colon; unlike Fallon, this Aleiodes falloni is female, 6.9 millimetres long and enjoys mummifying moth caterpillars and eating them from the inside out.

The wasps find their hapless victims (Aleiodes falloni‘s favourites are Noctuoidea and Geometroidea) in low trees or shrubbery in the cloud forests of Ecuador. The wasp injects an egg into the caterpillar and flies off. While the caterpillar goes about its business, eating leaves and growing as usual, inside it the egg snacks on its vital juices.

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Finally, the wasp larva has leeched enough of the caterpillar’s life force to turn its host into a shrunken mummy. This suits the young wasp just fine, because it has now turned its food supply into its new home – a cocoon in which to pupate.

Fully developed, the shiny new wasp drills its way out of the husk and flies off to find its soul mate, so that the circle of parasitic life can continue.